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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23234608">Safe Haven</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretentiouskneecap/pseuds/pretentiouskneecap'>pretentiouskneecap</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fair Game Week (RWBY), Fair Game Week 2020, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Pre-Relationship, day 5: Hurt/Comfort, filling in the gaps of canon bc i can</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:07:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,028</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23234608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretentiouskneecap/pseuds/pretentiouskneecap</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Qrow waits for Clover to get back from his mission, and then has the chance to get a few things off his chest.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Safe Haven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Fair Game Week Day 5: Hurt/Comfort (it's both)</p><p>This idea hit me late last night and I figured there was no way I was going to have it up in time, so go figure that it's the one I ended up posting the earliest. </p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Qrow sat haphazardly in the chair in the briefing room, absently flicking through articles on his scroll and grimacing as he sipped at his now-lukewarm cup of coffee.</p><p>His mission had ended a while back, and the post-mission debrief with James was long over. Since he’d been sitting here, numerous teams had come and gone, sending him curious looks that he refused to acknowledge, staring stubbornly at his scroll.</p><p>The mission he’d been on today had been simple enough, especially with his ability to fly and remain out of sight, but the whole time he’d felt off somehow. Nothing had happened, with his semblance or otherwise, and yet the growing feeling of wrongness had frustrated him endlessly. It had taken a few hours of increasingly distracting paranoia for him to realize that the problem was that he was on the mission <em>solo</em>, something that had been second nature for him until reaching Atlas.</p><p>Qrow didn’t know how to feel about the fact that being alone was already bothering him so much. He <em>really</em> didn’t want to look too closely at what that might mean. After all, Atlas and Mantle were a powder keg of anger and frustration. The political situation alone was dangerous, even before factoring in that the cities were about to become Salem’s next targets.</p><p>Besides, even if everything went well, a thought Qrow dismissed with a disbelieving snort, they couldn’t stay in Atlas forever.</p><p>In any case, he and Clover had both gone off alone today, for the first time in a long while. Qrow had completed his mission hours ago, but Clover, according to the mission board, was still out. Which wasn’t entirely unexpected. Clover’s mission had been several notches higher in difficulty and was expected to take most of the day, but still. He hadn’t come back yet. And at this point the sun had slipped low enough below the horizon that the moon’s shattered face had become visible in the dark sky.</p><p>Qrow shifted his posture as one of his feet started to go numb, tapping it rapidly against the floor to make the feeling go away. His thumb continued to swipe through the alerts on his scroll while he looked at them with glazed eyes, glancing toward the door of the room periodically.</p><p>After a few more minutes he sighed and closed out of the application, admitting to himself that he hadn’t retained anything he’d read over at least the past half an hour. He pulled up the aura-tracking screen, comforted slightly by the green still lit up next to Clover’s picture. It was hovering on the lower edge of the bracket, almost to the yellow, as it had been for the last two hours. Not out of the ordinary for such a long mission and nothing a bit of rest wouldn’t fix. Nothing he needed to worry about, he told himself firmly, and closed out of the screen. He opened up a mindless game instead, trying to dissipate the restless energy still thrumming under his skin.</p><p>Just as the game started to absorb his focus enough to be distracting, the handle of the door turned with a click and Clover walked into the room. Qrow paused the game immediately in favor of scanning an analytical eye over his usual partner, flicking his finger to shut the scroll down.</p><p>Clover looked fine, more or less. His hair was a bit tousled from being out in the tundra, and the cold had turned his cheeks a light pink that still lingered on his skin. His uniform was askew from the crisp lines it had fallen into that morning, but nothing was out of place in a way that belied any serious injury. The clover pin winked at him in the light from its usual spot on his chest.</p><p>Clover walked straight up to the mission board, quickly uploading information from his scroll as he ran a gloved hand through his hair with a sigh, letting his shoulders slump slightly.</p><p>Qrow cleared his throat from the corner of the room. “Hey.”</p><p>He felt guilty immediately when Clover startled violently, spinning toward him so fast it was impressive he didn’t lose his balance. Qrow frowned, thinking that Clover must be tired if he had missed noticing him so completely.</p><p>“Qrow,” Clover said, eyes wide with surprise before he recovered himself. “Hey. What’re you still doing here? I thought you were due back hours ago.”</p><p>Qrow shrugged. “Yeah,” he said. He debated leaving it there and then pressed on before he could stop himself. “Just wanted to make sure you checked back in okay. You were out pretty late.”</p><p>Clover quickly repressed a small grin. “I appreciate that, but you didn’t have to.” He spread his arms out wide, bowing his head slightly and gesturing at himself. “As you can see, I’m completely fine. No harm done. No problems for you, I hope?”</p><p>Qrow shook his head. “Nah, pretty cut and dry run. Nothing to write home about.”</p><p>He paused, looking at Clover pensively and biting his cheek as he debated his next question. Clover must have seen something on his face, because he dropped his arms and cocked his head to the side inquisitively.</p><p>“There something you want to ask me?” he asked, one corner of his lips turning upward in a small smile.</p><p>Qrow nodded, hesitating only a bit. “You guys do regular check-ins when you’re out in the tundra by yourselves, right? There’s someone who keeps track of where you are?”</p><p>Clover frowned in confusion. “Yes, usually. Conditions change so quickly out there that it’s important for everyone to keep in touch fairly often to make sure no one gets trapped or lost. There’s usually someone on the other end keeping track to make sure no one has missed a check-in, barring any extreme emergencies. Can I ask what this is about?” His confident mission-voice became concerned as he reached the end of his reply.</p><p>Qrow looked down, a grimace twisting his lips. “It’s nothing, really. I was just… checking.”</p><p>He could still feel the prickle of green eyes examining the hunch of his shoulders. “Something tells me it’s more than ‘nothing,’” Clover prompted gently. He walked toward Qrow, snagging a chair and turning it backwards to straddle his legs over it, arms crossed over the backrest.</p><p>A spike of anxiety was sharp in his chest, the instinctive desire to deny any admission of fear bringing placating words to his lips automatically. As if speaking his concerns aloud would make them real.</p><p>When Qrow looked up again, Clover’s eyes were watching him kindly. He felt the words fade from his tongue at the sight.</p><p>He pulled himself up to sit straighter in the chair, fists clenching over the edges of the cushion.</p><p>“We came here from Haven,” he began, looking at Clover to check for understanding. When Clover nodded, he continued. “While we were there, the state of it was pretty terrible. What happened at Beacon caused a mass panic, and huge numbers of Grimm came flocking in as they were drawn to it.”</p><p>Clover nodded again. “A similar thing happened here,” he chimed in. Qrow jerked his chin in acknowledgement.</p><p>“Pretty soon, the entire system was run dry. A good portion of their huntsmen and huntresses was lost in the first few days of the fighting alone.” Qrow let out a heavy sigh. “When we got there, I tried to look around for allies, find some of my old contacts I’d worked with in the past. I must’ve had at least thirty names of people I knew there.”</p><p>He swallowed hard, forcing the next words past the tightness obstructing his throat.</p><p>“I couldn’t find any of them. They were all gone.”</p><p>Clover’s eyes widened, and one hand jerked forward as if to comfort him. “How is that possible?” he asked, pressing his lips together as he processed the knowledge. “We haven’t had much communication with the other kingdoms since we closed the borders and the towers went down. We got pieces of information here and there from people who traveled into Atlas, but nothing concrete until- well, until you guys came along. I had no idea it had gotten that bad." He paused, disbelief coloring his voice. "<em>None </em>of them?”</p><p>Qrow shut his eyes. “None of them.”</p><p>He felt a warm hand rest over his upper arm, squeezing it gently. When Clover spoke, the soft tone of his voice made Qrow's chest ache. “I’m so sorry, Qrow. Were they friends of yours?”</p><p>He looked up into sympathetic green eyes. “Not exactly. It wasn’t like I saw them regularly, or anything. But I’d known a few of them for a long time.”</p><p>The idea haunted him, how they had all disappeared in the months after Beacon. Picked off one by one to leave Haven defenseless and give Salem the upper hand.</p><p>The thought of that happening to Clover…</p><p>He scuffed a hand over his face. “That’s not even the worst of it. I know the official story is that Headmaster Lionheart died fighting the enemy, but that was just a lie we told to prevent even more panic from breaking out. Truth is, he was working with Salem, sending out his huntsmen and huntresses alone so she could take them out without anybody raising a fuss. She killed him for failing her after we got the relic.”</p><p>The look on Clover’s face confirmed his thought that James hadn’t chosen to share that particular bit of information with his top operatives yet. Whatever. Qrow wasn’t in the military, and James had been the one to assign Clover as his partner, so if he had a reason for hiding it then he should’ve said so. Qrow trusted that Clover knew to be discreet.</p><p>The hand over his arm squeezed once more. “And you knew the headmaster too, didn’t you? That must’ve been awful.” Clover hesitated for a second before continuing. “You know that the General would never do that though, don’t you? That’s not going to happen in Atlas.”</p><p>Qrow barked out a weak laugh. “Yeah, I know good ol’ Jimmy would never ally himself with Salem, that’s for sure. If anything, I’d be worried about him going too far to stop her.” He sighed at the thought before looking up and holding Clover’s bright green gaze. “That doesn’t mean she still couldn’t try to destabilize him by targeting his chain of command when they’re alone and more vulnerable.”</p><p>Clover’s mouth popped open in a small ‘oh’ as he caught his meaning. He glanced down at his arms where they were crossed over the back of the chair, as if considering his response before he looked up again, holding Qrow’s gaze firmly.</p><p>“This job has always been dangerous, I knew that going in. That, at least, is one thing that hasn’t changed since I learned about Salem. It just means we have to be a lot more careful with what moves we make,” he drummed his knuckles over the back of the chair absently. He offered Qrow a smile. It was small, but no less bright for it. “I promise I’ll make sure to keep an eye out and check in, okay? At least when I’m out alone, as long as you do the same. If I’m with you then we can watch out for each other.”</p><p>Qrow couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at his lips. “Works for me.”</p><p>Clover watched him closely for another few seconds. “You feeling okay?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Qrow said, surprised to find it was true. The pain of all the lives that had been lost in the battle against Salem still weighed on him, but the fear had dissipated somewhat with Clover’s reassuring words. “Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks.”</p><p>With a wink, Clover pulled his hand back and stood up, stretching to loosen his muscles. “Time to rest up before tomorrow for me, I think.” He reached out an open palm toward Qrow. “You coming?”</p><p>Qrow nodded and took Clover’s hand wordlessly, allowing the other man to pull him to his feet. He hid a smile when Clover kept it in a loose grip as they walked out the door.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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